'Misleading'HealthLotteryadvertbannedbywatchdog

The Advertising Standards Authority has told the Health Lottery that it must not to use an advert, which claimed players had a “good chance of winning”, again in its current form.

Earlier this year 12 people complained about a television advert for the Health Lottery, which raises money for 51 society lotteries to distribute to good causes, which featured a man saying “I would encourage anyone to go out and buy a Health Lottery ticket. You’ve a very good chance of winning”.

The ASA has now ruled that advert breached four rules for being misleading, being unsubstantiated exaggerating the chance of winning and for using a testimonial that could be interpreted as fact.

Health Lottery told the ASA that the claim was one of a number of unprompted testimonials from winners and that “with approximately 300,000 players taking part in each draw and 1 in 108 players winning a prize in any one of their five weekly lottery draws, indicated that there was a “very good chance” of winning”.

But the ASA said: “We considered that such a claim was likely to be interpreted as factual and to mean that consumers were more likely to win a prize from the Health Lottery than not winning anything.

“However, because the claim was not supported with documentary evidence we considered that it exaggerated the chances of winning the Health Lottery and concluded it was likely to mislead viewers.”

It has told the Health Lottery not to use the advert in its current form again. Civil Society News has contacted the Health Lottery for comment. -